Lake Sturgeon
Conservation status
Least Concern
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Actinopterygii Order: Acipenseriformes Family: Acipenseridae Genus: Acipenser Species: [A. fulvescens
Binomial name
Acipenser fulvescens ( Rafinesque, 1817)

The lake sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens) is a North American temperate freshwater fish, one of about 20 species of sturgeon. Like other sturgeons, this species is an evolutionarily ancient bottomfeeder with a partly] cartilaginous skeleton and skin bearing rows of bony plates. The fish uses its elongated, spadelike snout to stir up the sand and silt on the beds of rivers and lakes while feeding. Barbels surrounding the mouth help it sense and manipulate food. The lake sturgeon can grow to a mass of over 100 kilograms (200 lb) and a length of 2 meters (6 feet) over its long lifetime. It can reach well over 100 years of age and usually does not reach sexual maturity until its third decade of life. The conservation status of a species is an indicator of the likelihood of that species continuing to survive either in the present day or the future. ... Image File history File links Status_iucn3. ... Least Concern (LC) is an IUCN category assigned to species or lower taxa which do not qualify for any other category. ... Scientific classification or biological classification is a method by which biologists group and categorize species of organisms. ... Digimon, the only known animals. ... Typical Classes See below Chordates (phylum Chordata) are a group of animals that includes the vertebrates, together with several closely related invertebrates. ... Orders See text The Actinopterygii are the ray-finned fish. ... Families Acipenseridae (sturgeons) Polyodontidae (paddlefishes) Chondrosteidae extinct Errolichthyidae extinct Acipenseriformes is an order of primitive ray-finned fishes that includes the sturgeons and paddlefishes, as well as some extinct families. ... Family Acipenseridae Unterfamilie Acipenserinae Genus Acipenser Acipenser baerii Siberian sturgeon, Acipenser baerii baerii Baikal sturgeon, Acipenser baerii baicalensis Shortnose sturgeon, Acipenser brevirostrum (USA) Yangtze sturgeon, Acipenser dabryanus Lake sturgeon, Acipenser fulvescens (USA) Russian sturgeon, Acipenser gueldenstaedtii Green sturgeon, Acipenser medirostris Sakhalin sturgeon, Acipenser mikadoi Japanese sturgeon, Acipenser multiscutatus Adriatic sturgeon... Species See text Sturgeon (Acipenser) is a genus of fishes, of which some twenty different species are known, from European, Asiatic and North American rivers. ... In biology, binomial nomenclature is the formal method of naming species. ... C. S. Rafinesque Constantine Samuel Rafinesque-Schmaltz (October 22, 1783-September 18, 1840) was a nineteenth-century polymath who led a chaotic life. ... 1817 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... World map showing North America A satellite composite image of North America. ... For the village on the Isle of Wight, see Freshwater, Isle of Wight. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... Cartilage is a type of dense connective tissue. ... This koi carp has two pairs of barbels, the second pair being quite small. ...

The lake sturgeon has taste buds on and around its barbels near its rubbery, prehensile lips. It extends its lips to vacuum up soft live food which it swallows whole due to its lack of teeth. Its diet consists of insect larvae, worms, leeches, small fish and other organisms it finds in the mud. Prehensility is the quality of an organ that has adapted for grasping or holding. ...

This sturgeon is a source of caviar and isinglass, and its oil was once used to fuel steamboats. It is also a valuable gourmet food fish. Like most sturgeons, the lake sturgeon is rare now, and is protected in many areas. It has been overharvested for its various products, and has succumbed to pollution and loss of migratory waterways. It is vulnerable to population declines through overfishing due to its extremely slow reproductive cycle; most individuals caught before twenty years of age have never bred and females spawn only once every four or five years. The specific harvesting of breeding females for their roe is also damaging to population size. The lake sturgeon was once a very abundant species in the Great Lakes, so common it was caught and discarded by fishermen seeking other species, but now it is rarely seen. Few individuals ever reach the extreme old age or large size that those of previous generations often did. A can of black Iranian caviar Russian salmon caviar on buttered bread Caviar is the processed salted roe of various species of fish, most notably sturgeon. ... Isinglass is a substance obtained from the swimbladders of fish (especially Beluga sturgeon), used mainly for the clarification of wine and beer. ... Paddle steamers — Lucerne, Switzerland. ... Salmon roe at the Shiogama seafood market in Japan Look up Roe in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The Great Lakes from space The Great Lakes are a group of five large lakes in North America on or near the Canada-United States border. ...

Today, limited sturgeon fishing seasons are permitted in only a few areas including some locations in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan. Fishing for sturgeon is allowed on Black Lake in Michigan, for example, but the fishery is limited to five total fish taken each year, each over 36 inches and taken through the ice with spears. 25 anglers are chosen by lottery each day and given a flag to raise when they have caught a fish. When five flags have been raised the season is closed for the year. Seasons have lasted as little as a few hours. There is also an annual sturgeon spearing season on Lake Winnebago in Wisconsin. It has changed from a 16 day season in the past to a season with a marked quota, however, the season can still run for the full 16 days. If 90-99% of the quota is reached on any day the season is over at 12:30 pm the following day. If 100% (or more) of the quota is reached the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources can enable an emergency stoppage rule which would end spearing at 12:30 pm the day the quota is reached. Before the season structure was changed to protect this valuable resource spearers could fish from midnight on opening day to 11:59 pm on the 16th day of the season. Now spearers start at 6:30 am and have to stop for the day at 12:30 pm. During those six hours the fishermen look down a hole that is cut into the ice with chainsaws that cannot exceed 48ft². In order to be harvested the sturgeon must be at least 36 inches.[1] The largest sturgeon ever harvested on Lake Winnebago weighed 188 pounds and was speared by Dave Piechowski in 2004.[2] Black Lake is located in Cheboygan and Presque Isle counties in Northern Michigan. ...

References

• Sturgeon Specialist Group (1996). Acipenser fulvescens. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 11 May 2006.
• Acipenser fulvescens (TSN 161071). Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Accessed on 11 March 2006.
• "Acipenser fulvescens". FishBase. Ed. Ranier Froese and Daniel Pauly. 10 2005 version. N.p.: FishBase, 2005.